We just talked about rumors published by Wall Street Journal about the upcoming “iPhone XI Max” (fictitious name – or at least we hope), giving an account of a possible system with three rear cameras. Now, Barclays analyst Blaine Curtis has a few more guesses about the model and the 2019 iPhones as a whole, only focused on connectivity.
According to Curtis, the models to be launched this year will support the protocol Wi-Fi 6, a trade name for Wi-Fi 802.11ax launched at the end of last year that provides much higher transfer speeds, improved performance in environments with many devices and greater energy efficiency to preserve the battery of mobile devices.
Wi-Fi 6 is still in its infancy; several products capable of transmitting it, such as routers and repeaters, were announced at CES 2019, but they should only reach the market in the coming months. Apple may be one of the first companies to embrace the protocol if it launches the next iPhones already supporting it – which, incidentally, would not be a novelty, since Apple was also one of the first major companies to launch products with support for Wi-Fi 5 (or 802.11ac).
5G chip from Samsung or MediaTek
Continuing on issues related to the “connectivity” theme, an Apple executive shared interesting information about the process of choosing 5G modems for future iPhones, as informed by Reuters.
In testimony to an American court over the legal battle with Qualcomm, Apple’s supply chain executive Tony Blevins said Apple considered using the company’s 5G modems. Samsung or the MediaTek for the coming iPhones. As far as was known, the company would follow up with Intel and use its parts in the devices; the manufacturer would even have accelerated the production of the modems to meet the needs of the Cupertino giant.
The move would be called «Project Antique» within Cupertino – focused on having no more than a supplier of modems for iPhones. In the words of Blevins:
The whole concept of the Antique Project would be to find a second supplier. No offense to Intel, but we don’t want it to be the only one. We wanted Qualcomm and Intel in the mix.
Obviously, with any type of deal with Qualcomm very difficult at the moment, the prospect of having the company among 5G modem providers has been a waste – hence the demand for options from Samsung and MediaTek. Regarding the South Korean competitor, Blevins admitted that “there is no ideal environment” for doing business with Samsung, but the company remains the largest supplier of parts to Apple.
The principal was not informed by Blevins: he did not say whether Apple has any plans to introduce 5G modems already on iPhones in 2019 or whether it will wait until 2020 to bring the novelty – which, according to recent rumors, seems to be the most likely .
via 9to5Mac, AppleInsider
